> What We Do > ODA Policy & Structure
By Income Group
The Korean government is consistently increasing the share of its development assistance to the least developed countries (LDCs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), while reducing its aid to upper-middle-income countries (UMICs). Korea’s policy for 2016-2020 is to maintain the structure of income-based ODA allocation that is similar to the current one, but to focus on providing more ODA in the form of grants to LDCs.
In 2018, LDCs (35.7%), other low-income countries (0.1%), and LMICs (36.7%) received 72.5% of Korea’s ODA. Meanwhile, 9.7% of aid was provided to UMICs following a 1.7% increase from 2017, in line with the government’s efforts to implement its aid allocation policy.
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Least developed countries | 161.02 | 333.26 | 346.73 | 417.00 | 515.31 | 542.00 | 580.13 | 577.71 | 587.72 | 642.30 |
| Other low-income countries | 5.82 | 7.25 | 10.82 | 10.91 | 8.72 | 8.61 | 9.27 | 10.37 | 12.83 | 1.29 |
| Lower-middle income countries | 222.30 | 354.81 | 366.58 | 472.51 | 502.40 | 485.79 | 529.95 | 540.05 | 592.55 | 660.32 |
| Upper-middle income countries | 93.41 | 111.17 | 120.93 | 107.56 | 101.76 | 140.09 | 109.74 | 135.00 | 128.68 | 173.43 |
| Unallocated | 100.48 | 96.22 | 144.46 | 175.08 | 181.28 | 219.28 | 239.71 | 285.34 | 293.34 | 318.83 |